Creative writing majors focus on writing poetry, fiction, or drama. In addition to the required five courses in writing, students take six or more courses in either literature or linguistics. Creative writing is appropriate for students who love to write and who do so no matter what. Many students choose to double major in creative writing and professional writing.
Points of Pride
- The Creative Writing major is designed around workshop courses that are capped at no more than 20 students.
- The Creative Writing program sponsors a Visiting Speakers series during the fall and spring semesters, giving majors the opportunity to attend talks about craft and readings from a range of noteworthy fiction writers and poets.
- The Department of English holds a Literary Awards competition and celebration every spring. Students can submit their best writing – creative work, essays, and nonfiction – to be considered for awards in a wide variety of categories, and a major author comes to campus to speak with students about writing and to give a reading of his or her own work.
- The Purdue Online Writing Lab (OWL) offers a vast library of resources ranging from style guides to instructional material to assist Purdue students. OWL also is an international resource with a website that receives nearly 100 million hits a year from more than 125 different countries. Advanced undergraduates can apply to be peer tutors in the Writing Lab.
- Undergraduates in English publish their own literary magazine, The Bell Tower, each year, and advanced undergraduates have the opportunity to volunteer for Sycamore Review, a journal edited and managed by the MFA Creative Writing program. Many undergraduates in English also volunteer for the staff of Purdue’s student newspaper, The Exponent.
- The Department of English co-sponsors the Books and Coffee series in which faculty, staff, and students meet weekly in February to enjoy coffee and tea and to listen to a professor talk about a recent book.
- The Department of English sponsors several student organizations to involve majors in a variety of activities, including the Student English Association, the Sigma Tau Delta Honors Society, and the Professional Writers Club.